


Still Jack and Daniel - The 2nd Year - XV The Train Set

by Annejackdanny



Series: Still Jack and Daniel Series 2 - No Yellow Brick Road/Ghosts of the Past [15]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, M/M, kidfic fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 07:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annejackdanny/pseuds/Annejackdanny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What are you gonna do on a rainy day?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Jack and Daniel - The 2nd Year - XV The Train Set

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a while since I posted, but I'll go steady from here now. Thanks to everyone who is reading these. I am currently working on artwork and on putting the whole series on my website.

**The Train Set**

**I**

Jack peered out his window as he cleared the breakfast table, and scowled. He began to wonder if someone had stolen the Touchstone again and was hiding it on Earth to mess around with the weather. 

Most of July and August it had been hot and dry, all blue skies and sunny. They had spent their free time leisurely in the yard, grilling and watching the dog play. They had talked about how they could use some rain for the garden and when the first dark clouds had appeared six days ago, Jack had welcomed them. After all, it meant he didn't have to water his flowers that day. It had started to rain and thunder; the flowers and the lawn had soaked up every drop of water with relish. Jack and Daniel had shrugged and watched TV instead of hanging out on the porch.

The rain hadn’t stopped the next day. Nor the next... 

They had pulled out the old jigsaw and worked on it. They had argued some about whether rainy days were a good opportunity to tidy up rooms and put some effort into cleaning the house. Or not. Daniel was on the not-side. Jack was inclined to agree, but felt that someone should pretend to care about dust bunnies under the beds and books that had snuck out of Daniel's room and were now threatening to take over the house. “Today it's the house, tomorrow they want to claim world domination. Can't let that happen,” Jack had said and Daniel had rolled his eyes meaningfully.

Today it was still raining. And it was the second day of their three days off. They had spent last weekend in DC for the official opening of HWS. The Daniels had shone with brilliancy. The Joint Chiefs had been there and Jack could swear Little Daniel had grown three inches when some of them praised their Stargate 101 presentation. Things had gone well and they had returned home without any nasty incidents. So they had gotten three days leave now that it was over and done with.

And it was raining. 

Jack wondered what the chances were of drowning on the street when he had to take the dog out later. The house was kind of clean and the books had surrendered and retreated back to the kid's room. Jack had read through some of his old National Geographic magazines, they had finished two jigsaws, had watched some old movies, played cards, cooked a fancy dinner, and Daniel had read, holed up in his room, until he was cross-eyed. 

Flyboy had started to chew on socks again out of pure boredom. He wasn't keen on going out in the rain and Jack couldn't blame him. They splashed through puddles, got wet and muddy – dog and humans alike – and were glad when they could return home. For Jack and Daniel it meant leaving their wet shoes at the door. For Flyboy it meant getting dried with a towel, which he wasn't very fond off. Yesterday they’d had to shower him off in the bathtub because he was muddy all over and stank to high heaven – dirty wet dog and all that. The black monster hadn't been pleased with them. 

Yep, the dog was happy to stay inside. But he was also a big dog and needed to run and play. So they dragged him outside, regardless, for more than just taking care of his business. But it was no fun and the mutt was stir crazy. 

Jack wiped the counters and refilled the dog's water bowl, then sauntered into the living room to find his morning paper. He was sure he'd put it on the coffee table to let it dry off. Yes, even the paper had been damp when he’d collected it from the front steps in the early morning. Frowning, he looked under the table and on the couch. No paper. 

Where the heck...? 

“Jack! I've got the solution!” Daniel came dashing through the hallway, hopped down the two steps into the living room and skidded to a halt in front of him. The dog, who had stormed after his master, bumped into the back of Jack's knees and tried to squeeze himself between them, almost causing Daniel to stumble.

Daniel patted Flyboy's head absently and went on, “I looked it up on the internet and found lots of useful tips. I need plastic bottles and bowls and stuff. And a ball. And dog treats.”

Jack looked at Daniel blankly. “What?”

“I need plastic bottles, bowls and a ball.”

“I heard you the first time. I just don't know what you're talking about,” Jack said, giving up on finding the paper for now. 

“I looked for things to do on rainy days,” Daniel said patiently. “There's this book called 'Living with kids and dogs without losing your mind'. And there are some sections of it on the net.” 

Flyboy let out a bark and bounded through the living room, back up the stairs and out of sight, probably thinking Daniel would follow him and play catch or something.

“Buy it,” Jack said at once.

“There's no need to buy it. It has some cool things to do on the website,” Daniel explained. “So I need plastic bottles...”

“Right. What for?” 

“Dog bowling,” Daniel said, beaming. “It's easy. You put up a bowling triangle with empty plastic bottles and bowls, throw a ball or a treat and your dog runs after it and through the triangle. We can keep score of how many bottles he hits.”

“No balls in the house,” Jack said. “You know how he gets when you're throwing a ball.” Fact was the dog thought he was supposed to do a home run whenever a ball flew past him. And then catch it and try to chew it to death if possible. 

“Okay. There's a different way of doing this. We'll put up the triangle. You hold him in here, I go over to the other end of the hall and call him. He'll come running and topple over the bottles. We can take turns,” Daniel said. “It'll give him exercise and it might be fun.”

Jack opened his mouth to tell Daniel to find something else to entertain himself when Flyboy returned happily, dragging the morning paper with him. It was already drooled on and ripped. 

“Dog bowling,” Jack said, peering down his nose at the dog and his ruined paper. “Right.” 

***

“Five!” Daniel yelled across the hall. 

“You're cheating!” Jack yelled back from the living room.

“Am not!” Daniel ran, dog on his heels, towards Jack. “Your turn!” He took a firm hold on Flyboy's collar as Jack jogged down to the other end of the hall. The bowling triangle was in the middle by the front door. They had found lots of empty water bottles to use and some plastic bowls. And Flyboy, who was a very smart dog, had understood the game pretty fast. 

Jack stopped on his way to pick up the fallen bottles, then took post at Daniel's bedroom door. “You guys ready?” 

“Ready!” Daniel called back.

Jack whistled, but that wasn't necessary anymore. Flyboy was already racing down the hall, dashing into the bottles on his way. He tried to slow down, failed, lost his balance and landed on his butt as he parked in front of Jack. He jumped up immediately and tried to push against Jack's chest with his paws. “Aht! Sit,” demanded Jack. “Let's see how much you got there. Six! Ha! Good boy!” He gave the now sitting dog his treat and scratched behind his ears. 

When they came back to the living room so that Jack and Daniel could swap places, Daniel looked down on his chart and grinned. “I still scored more on the whole.” They had played six rounds each and Daniel was clearly ahead in scores. 

“How about we try something different?” Jack asked. “Like hide and seek. Might be a great thing for him to do. You hide, he seeks.” 

“Hey, we never tried that!” Daniel remembered a time when Jack had considered taking Flyboy to training school to make him a watchdog because he had the tendency to guard Daniel when they were going out. They had never actually done it, but Daniel was sure Flyboy would protect him from any harm even without being trained for it. He was curious to find out if Flyboy would be able to find him, especially since Daniel's scent was all over the house anyway. “How do we go at that?” 

“I'll make him stay here and you find a place to hide. Then you call him. And take a biscuit with you.” 

“Okay!” He took one of the dog biscuits they had used as treats for the bowling game and went to his room. Thinking for a moment, Daniel finally squeezed himself under the bed. This was one occasion he appreciated they had vacuumed the house – no dust bunnies to make him sneeze. He made himself as small as possible and then called for his dog. 

There was the excited tapping of paws on the hardwood floor. Daniel watched as the door to his room was pushed open and then Flyboy's black legs appeared. The childish urge to giggle ruined it though. Daniel slapped a hand over his mouth, but it was too late. Flyboy stuck his head under the bed and barked happily. “Next time I'll make it real hard for you,” Daniel said as he crawled out and gave Flyboy his biscuit. 

Jack peered around the doorjamb. “Well, that was quick.” 

“I laughed,” Daniel admitted. “But this time I'll find the perfect place, you'll see.” 

Jack sat on his bed and distracted Flyboy by fondling his head and ears. “Go for it.”

Daniel went back to the living room, grabbed another biscuit and thought for a moment. He could hide in the pantry. But that seemed so simple. He decided to climb into the broom closet. Before he pulled the door close he called for Flyboy. Then he settled on the pail and vowed not to laugh. 

This time it took a few minutes and two more calls before Daniel heard scratching noises at the door. Once he had praised the dog and given him the treat, Daniel took off to find a new hiding place. He remembered how he had hidden under the back porch once from Jack. That would be a cool place. But it was still pouring outside and Daniel didn't want to get soaking wet. 

He tiptoed down to the basement and opened the door to the small room where they kept the washer and dryer. But there was no space to hide anywhere. So he went to the 'junk and treasure room' as Jack called it sometimes. He switched on the light. It was not wise to try and move around in here in the dark. 

Lots of boxes were stacked along the walls and in shelves. Some of them contained things that used to belong to Daniel pre-downsizing. Lots of his stuff had ended up in storage and was now at BD's house. But some of his books, artifacts and clothes were here. Daniel only paused for a moment at the thought that pieces of his past were kept down here. Stumbling across his old things these days triggered little more than a passing shadow and a weird feeling of unease. One day he would change back. And that prospect – once longed for and dreamed of – made him edgy. He preferred not to think about it too much. 

He climbed over a couple of boxes labeled “Clothes” and decided to crouch behind them. He squatted on the floor and was about to yell for Flyboy, when his foot pushed against another, smaller, box beside him. Curious he took a better look at it. It seemed very old. Not one of the neatly labeled moving boxes. Its lid was sealed with duct tape and scrawled on it in Jack's handwriting was only one word. 

Charlie.

“What's in there?” Daniel whispered as he sat up straight and picked it up. It was bigger than he had thought. He struggled with it for a moment until he could set it down on the clothes box. His fingers were already fumbling with the duct tape, curiosity momentarily overriding everything else. He had peeled it off halfway when he heard footsteps on the stairs and Jack entered the room, accompanied by Flyboy. “Hey, what'cha doing down here? I thought we were playing hide and seek?”

“I...” Heat rose in his cheeks and he fought down the stupid wish to hide the box somewhere. Which would be a feeble attempt anyway since it was too big to just drop and hide it. But he felt like he had done something he wasn't allowed to. This had been Charlie's stuff. “I found this behind my boxes,” he finally said. “I'm sorry. I didn't think, I mean... I was curious.”

Jack crouched on the other side of the box and frowned. “That's Charlie's,” he said quietly.

Daniel bit his lip. “I know. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have tried to open it.”

But Jack wasn't even listening. Instead he asked Daniel if he had his Swiss army knife at hand. 

“Sure, I have it here.” He pulled it out of his jeans and handed it over.

With a few quick cuts the box was open. “I wonder...” Jack murmured as he reached inside. “Ah, yes. Look at this, Daniel.” He pulled out something long and small. 

“Train tracks?” 

“Yeah. We used to have it set up in the garage during the summer,” Jack said. There was a smile playing around his lips and Daniel noticed how it softened his face. Daniel had seen Jack smile like this from time to time when he was watching him and thought no one noticed. For some reason the thought that Jack smiled at him the same way he smiled at the thought of Charlie generated a fuzzy warm feeling in the pit of Daniel's stomach and he had to smile, too. 

“There should be a couple more boxes with trains, lights and houses,” Jack said. “We had a railway station and a tunnel with a mountainside. I think we even had some kind of village. And a bridge.”

“Wow,” Daniel said. “And it's all here?”

“The train set was one of the few things I took.” 

Daniel pulled out another pair of tracks and examined them. “They look almost like real tracks,” he said, fascinated against his will. “Just miniature ones.” 

“Yep. We had to build some of the houses ourselves. It was perfect for rainy days. Charlie was good with stuff like that. He used to build model fighter jets, too, when he was your age.” Jack brushed a tender finger over the track he was holding. 

“Do you want to set it up?” Daniel asked before he could change his mind. 

Jack blinked at him, his eyes widening a little. “You want to set up the train?”

“Yeah, sure. I mean, only if you want to. If doesn’t, you know, make you sad or something,” Daniel hastened to say. Maybe Jack didn't want to go there. Maybe he wanted to put it away and forget about it?

Jack looked at him sharply. “You don't have to do that, Daniel. I'm okay.”

“Do what?” Daniel carefully put the track back. 

“Pretend you want to set up the train because you think I'd like that,” Jack said firmly. “C'mon. Let's put it away and go upstairs.”

“Okay.” But Daniel continued to stare at the Charlie box, somehow drawn to it. “I never...” he began, then shook his head. He never had a train set as a kid. But then, had he ever wanted one? He couldn't remember ever wishing for a train set for Christmas or anything. Yet, he had a feeling that a train set might be a lot of fun. And didn't adults play with train sets too? Even some who didn't have kids? 

He patted the box awkwardly.

***

Jack watched Daniel carefully as he tried to figure out what was going on in the kid's head. He looked indecisive, but his eyes kept going back to the box. “You never had a train set as a kid,” Jack finished Daniel's sentence. He hadn't thought so anyway. Daniel had played with archeology tools as a kid. With camels – real ones – and he’d probably had lots of books and blocks for building pyramids. And later, after his parents had died, he probably hadn’t had many toys. 

“No,” Daniel said. “I never had one. I never missed not having one.” He bit his bottom lip. “How... how do you play with it? I mean I know how to play with it, theoretically. But... d'you have to put on a rail engineer cap and make choo-choo noises? Or blow a whistle?”

Jack tried very hard not to laugh. At the same time he realized this was one of those moments showing that Daniel's first childhood had lacked some things every kid should be allowed to take for granted up to a point. Jack and Charlie had spent hours playing with the train set when Charlie had been nine... just as Daniel was nine now. 

When Daniel had been nine, he'd been shuffled from foster home to foster home. It wasn't a laughing matter. Jack remembered how awkward it had been for Daniel to play with Al at first. How he had sometimes struggled – sometimes still struggled – to get into the kid-mind-set and loosen up enough to let his guard down. Svenson said it was partly because Daniel still felt he had to be 'grown up' more often than not. But Jack was sure Daniel had had to grow up way too fast the first time around. He had spent a lot of his youth studying and reading, burying himself in books and school assignments, always three steps ahead of everyone else. But he doubted Daniel had ever crawled across the floor setting up a train set or played with cars or tin soldiers – or whatever - after his parents had died. 

“You won't need a cap nor a whistle. Unless you want to. And there's no need for choo-choo,” Jack said.

“I've seen a guy playing with a train set in some movie. It was kinda scary,” Daniel shared, blushing. Then he shrugged. “I just never did it.”

“Imagination, Daniel,” Jack said. “The best part of having a train set isn't the playing. It's the set up. And changing the set up. It's like exploring new possibilities. You know, like when you and Al play Lego and keep changing your settings and re-building everything ten times until you're both happy with it?”

“I only play Lego with Al because he likes it,” Daniel snapped, a short relapse into being defensive. 

“That's why I said we don't have to set up the trains. If you don't have fun doing it, it's not worth the hassle to carry it all up and start fiddling with it.” Jack was pretty sure that at least part of Daniel secretly enjoyed the occasional Lego session with Al, even though he had started out only doing it to indulge his little friend. But working on the train set might take all day and Jack wasn't prepared to end up playing on his own when it was halfway done just because Daniel decided he'd rather read after all. 

If he was brutally honest, he just wasn't prepared to face the memories that came with this train set alone. He'd like to make new ones, fresh ones. Charlie would have liked that his dad still had use for the trains. But if he did it, he wanted Daniel to help turn it into a good experience, not a sad one. Jack had taken the train set because it had been special to both of them. Even more special than the baseball glove and ball that were probably still in Charlie's room. 

He had never intended to set it up again. But now... 

Daniel got to his feet and wiped his dusty hands on the bottom of his jeans. “Well, I won't know if I like it if I don't try, right?”

“It's a lot of work,” Jack cautioned. “First we have to find the other boxes. Then we have to carry it all up and dust it off. We might have to repair some of the houses and trees...”

“Trees? You've got tiny trees, too?” Daniel asked, for some reason clearly amazed.

“Yeah. They're glued to the mountain with the tunnel, but some might have fallen off or broken.”

“And we could repair them?“

“We could try. If you really like working on this we could drive out to Custom Railway Supplies to get paint and some new stuff.” 

“But – where do we set it up? It has to be someplace Flyboy won't accidentally walk across it or eat any of the trees or other tiny pieces. And we'd have to put it some place where it's not in the way.” Daniel rubbed his nose, his eyes wandering around the room. “It could be here. But we'd have to put all the other boxes somewhere else... Jack!” He gestured at the ceiling with his hands. “Up in my tree house! If we push the old coffee table out of the way there's lots of space on the floor! And we can easily keep the dog out. He never comes up there. He doesn't like the stairs, they're too steep for him. We can put his blanket and his squeaky toy by the fireplace and give him a chewing bone. He'll think we're going out. We just have to close your bedroom door so he can't get your stuff to chew on.”

“Why is it always my stuff anyway,” Jack muttered. He had mostly broken the dog's habit of stealing his socks and sweatpants from the hamper. But if he was left alone too long or got bored he still managed to get his paws and teeth on something from Jack's bedroom if the door wasn't closed. He never chewed on Daniel's things though. And the dog had lots more access to Daniel's room where books and clothes often lay scattered on the desk or bed. 

Jack didn't get it. And he refused to believe Daniel's theory that his socks were the smelliest in the house and therefore the dog was attracted to them. 

“Jack? Can we put it in the tree house?” Daniel repeated his previous question with a bit more urgency.

Jack knew his knees and back would soon give him hell for putting the train set on the floor, but he couldn't think of a table large enough for it. “Let's haul all the boxes up to the living room for now and go through them to see what we want and what's good to be used, okay?” It might take all afternoon to go through everything and if Daniel got bored too soon it was easier to drag everything back down here. 

“Okay!” And with that Daniel started to search for the other boxes labeled 'Charlie' while Jack carried the track box upstairs. 

***

An hour later Daniel sat on the living room floor, tracks, trains and little buildings all around him. Jack was on the couch examining the two mountains. Open cardboard boxes stood on the coffee table. Flyboy had retreated to sit at the glass door and look out into the rainy garden. He hadn’t shown much interest in what Daniel and Jack were doing once he'd realized play time was over for now. 

Daniel couldn't help but be intrigued by the perfectly realistic look of the trains and the miniscule signals and railroad crossing gates. The gates could be opened and closed from a power station Jack had shown him earlier. With it you could turn on the lights, move the track switches, and control the trains with it. Daniel had wondered about electricity – he didn't have power up at the tree house. But Jack had explained that the whole set ran on batteries. Another thing they had to buy at the Custom Railway Supplies – batteries. 

Jack had started a list of things they would need. They had decided to buy more trees for the mountainside and more paint to re-do the rock formation at the tunnel entrance where the paint had peeled off.

“Do you think the others would like to help?” Daniel asked as he dusted off tracks with a soft cloth Jack had given him. They were using brushes to clean the houses and trains of the dust that had settled on them while they had been stored away. “We could all go to Custom Railway's together.”

“Sure, why not. I bet Teal'c never had a train set as a kid either,” Jack said. “And Carter might actually have had one and would love to join in.” 

Daniel put down his track and glanced at Jack. “You want me to call BD, too?”

There was a pause, but only a brief one. Jack gazed at the mountain model in his hands for a moment before he looked at Daniel. “You can call him. But if he's busy with... well, if he has plans, don't try to talk him into coming.”

Daniel thought it might not be a good idea to ask if he could invite Fergus along. They hadn't talked about this anymore, but he didn't need it to be spelled out for him that Jack wasn't very keen on having the Scott around. And Daniel wasn't all too sure how he felt about BD being with Fergus either. It was all very confusing and he quickly focused on the task at hand again.

Calling their friends. 

He reached Sam at the mountain where she was working in her lab. But she immediately jumped at the offer to come over, promising to bring Teal'c along. Pete was in Denver this week and she had been bored at home. “But there's nothing earth shattering to work on around here either at the moment,” she told Daniel, “so I'm on my way as soon as I put everything away.” 

BD wasn't home and when Daniel called his mobile, he only got the voice mail telling him Doctor Jackson was currently not available, but would call back if he left a message. He considered doing so, but then he just hung up. What if BD was in bed with Fergus or something? Grimacing he put the phone down and reported the state of things to Jack.

“Not home is he, eh?” Jack muttered. 

“Do you want me to leave a message on his...”

“No!” Then, after another pause, Jack frowned. “It's not like him to not answer the...”

“Well, maybe he and Ferg...” 

“TMI, Daniel!”

“He'd answer it if it was the mountain calling, I'm sure. You don't think something's wrong, do you? I mean we're off from work and as long as there's no emergency...” He shrugged at Jack's glowering. “Just saying.”

Jack rose to his feet. “I better put some beer in the fridge and see if there's something we can cook up for dinner tonight.”

“There's pasta in the pantry. And tomato sauce in the freezer,” Daniel informed him. “And I think we have some ice cream left.”

“Great. That should do.” Jack walked out and Daniel continued to dust off the tracks.

  
  


Sam got all big-eyed over the train set. She immediately sat on the floor next to Daniel and rummaged through the contents of the boxes while Jack enlightened Teal'c about the fun of model railroading. 

“Marc and I used to have one when we were kids. But it wasn't as cool as this. Since we moved a lot it had to fit into two boxes so we could take it with us. I remember we spent whole weekends playing with it,” she shared. “We even had a steam locomotive.”

“Did it blow out real steam?” Daniel asked. He had seen real ones in a museum years ago and remembered being impressed by how they worked. Steam locomotives were a relic from another time period and he knew some were still operational on scenic routes for tourists. 

“No. I'm not sure, but I think most live steam mini locomotives are bigger than these. The live steam models run on water with some kind of fuel to boil it. There are fuel tablets. Some run on gas. They are often used for garden railroading. You'd need lots of space and lots of money. Hey, here's your railway station. It looks pretty good.”

Daniel placed the station house on the coffee table with the other intact buildings. It bore a tiny sign that said “Pike's Peak Railway Station” “There's a whole village and even a couple of cars and animals. Like cows and horses. Oh, and a church.” Daniel pointed at the other houses they had dusted off. 

“Where are you going to set it up?” Sam asked. “It's too big to fit in here, isn't it?”

“We'll put it in the tree house,” Daniel said. “We won't be able to set up the whole set, but enough to have fun with it. And we can change out stuff all the time.” 

Sam looked thoughtfully at the many tracks covering the floor. “You know,” she said after a moment, “if you guys wouldn’t mind coming over to my place to play with it... I've got a huge garage and I rarely park the car in there because, well, I'm too lazy and my driveway is kind of narrow so I mostly just leave it in front of the house. If we set up some sort of table, we could put it there. I've got a huge craft table I never use.” 

Jack looked up from the box he and Teal'c were bent over. “Why not? My knees would appreciate it. What do you think, Daniel?”

“And we could come over and play whenever we want?” Daniel asked.

“Sure. You could bring your friend Al, too. It's a lot of unused space and I bet Pete's gonna love it.” Daniel had to look away to hide his smile. Sam probably wasn't aware of it, but whenever she mentioned Pete – even in passing – her eyes lit up like the sun was rising in them. 

“Can we do it now?” He jumped up and checked on the weather. The waterworks were still on, but they all had cars. “We can put all the boxes in the truck. If we close the bed everything will stay dry.”

Sam shrugged. “You just have to help move some stuff aside. And I don't have anything for dinner.” She gave a sheepish smile. “You know I never cook when I'm alone. Pete's the wizard in the kitchen.”

“We have pasta and tomato sauce. We could bring it. And beer. We even have ice cream left.” Daniel zipped around the coffee table and wriggled himself between Jack and Teal'c on the couch. “Jack? Can we?”

“I think we should order pizza rather than carrying half the contents of our freezer around,” Jack said. 

“Indeed. And dessert,” Teal'c agreed. He studied a diesel locomotive. “Is this a realistic scaled-down model of a train?” 

“Yeah. That's a Serco locomotive,” Jack said, then frowned. “You haven't seen many trains around here, huh?”

“I have not. Only on television.” Teal'c probed the red and silver door with a nail of his thumb. “It does not appear to function like a real train.”

“Nope. It's just a model and the door won't open. But wait til we set it up. It's fun watching them run,” Jack said reassuringly.

“Jaffa boys often play with miniature soldiers. It helps them to exercise strategical moves and formations. There would be no use in our society for miniature vehicles just for amusement,” Teal'c pointed out. He put the locomotive on the coffee table and looked at it thoughtfully. “Building miniature landscapes and trains seems very intricate for the purpose of just playing with it.”

“You'll see, big guy. You'll see.”

“I've never done it either, Teal'c. But I think it's like putting together the model of a temple or pyramid.” Daniel wished he could build the Valley of the Kings around the trainset. But of course that would be stupid. There was no train going through the Valley of the Kings. It'd just be weird. 

Jack patted the top of his head. “C'mon, buddy. Start packing. Teal'c and I will get the train base and the cover for the truck bed.”

***

A couple hours later they stood in Carter's garage, watching Daniel swinging the broom as he swept dust and cobwebs out of the way. 

They had moved a few boxes and one shelf unit to the far wall and stacked a couple of crates next to it. Jack thought Carter must be the only person he knew who didn't have a garage stuffed with junk or tools – or both. When she’d mentioned she never put her car in here, he had pictured the place filled with old furniture, tools, things you never need but didn't want to throw away, and other stuff. But tidying up here had been a piece of cake.

“I think that's enough, Daniel,” Sam laughed. “It's clean enough to eat from the floor.”

Jack and Teal'c unfolded the craft table and positioned it so that there was enough space to walk around. They put up the platform – a wooden tabletop Jack had used as the train's base when it had been set up at their old house. On top of it they placed the newly acquired poly foam board. 

The trip to Custom Railways had been enlightening. 

Jack had rarely seen Daniel so eagerly cruise a shop that wasn't a book store. The kid had wandered from shelf to shelf, from train display to model trains with wide eyes, muttering words like “Cool” and “Wow” under his breath. Teal'c had stopped at a large display complete with an alpine village and snow covered mountains. After he had watched the two trains zipping around on their tracks, through the tunnels and across a bridge for a while, he had bowed his head and said, “Will your train set be similar to this one, O'Neill?”

“Well, our village is more American-style and the mountainside is different, but yeah... something like this. Not quite this big maybe.”

“I see.” 

That had been that. And when they had left they had been loaded with bags and boxes and the poly foam board. There had been a little dispute about whether or not it was necessary to buy another mountainside kit. After all they already had two mountains. But when Jack had nagged about the cost and that it wasn't anyone's birthday, Daniel, Carter and Teal'c had thrown in some money. However, Jack had put his foot down when they suggested getting a second village and a second railway station. 

“The train has to come and go somewhere,” Daniel had reasoned. “What use is just one station?”

“I'm sure we could make it fit,” Carter had agreed readily.

“Write a letter to Santa when Christmas comes around, kids,” Jack had told them and ordered a quick retreat, refusing to cave under Teal'c's threatening glares.

Yep, enlightening it had been. Looked like SG-1 had developed a new team night activity. 

Daniel started to draw the layout of tracks on the poly foam with a pencil, deciding where he wanted to place the mountainside, houses and bridges. Carter helped with the measuring and calculating of distances while Jack and Teal'c unpacked the tracks, wires and power stations. 

“We're ready!” Daniel looked at his handiwork and nodded. “This will do, right, Sam?”

“We'll see once we lay out the tracks,” she said. “We can adjust it anytime.”

Jack hung back and watched as Daniel and Teal'c laid them out together in a circle, with one track leading into and several branches out. “We need to leave space for where the bridges will be,” Daniel informed his big friend and Teal'c bowed his head in acknowledgment. 

It was fun to watch this. Daniel's chatter about curves and track switches and signal gates chased away the shadows lurking somewhere in the corner of Jack's mind. _Yes_ , he thought, _Charlie would have liked seeing his train was being played with again_. And suddenly he felt like calling Sara and telling her about the train set. For a short moment he wondered how she'd feel about Daniel. About the fact Jack was a dad again. Then Daniel called for him to come and look and the moment was gone.

Once they had glued the old mountainside with its tunnel to the board, Sam helped Daniel hide wires in the poly foam, leading from the power station to where the village and railway station would be. Jack and Teal'c carved a riverbed and a pond with their electrical knives. 

Outside the rain splattered against the two windows in the back of Carter's garage and drummed a staccato on the roof. The light got dimmer and they had to switch on the overhead – a lonely but bright light bulb. 

“Paint!” Daniel carried over the jars and brushes. “Where do we start? I guess we need a ground layer first, right? How about brown? Or ocher?”

“Ocher will do,” Jack said as each of them grabbed a brush. “Make sure to paint under the tracks, too. We want them to stick to the board so they won't move out of place,” he told them. “And don't paint the streets, pond or the river ocher.”

“We're not stupid, you know?” Daniel shook his head indignantly. 

“It appears to be a desert area,” Teal'c observed once the whole board was covered in ocher, except for the areas that needed a different color. 

“Speaking of dessert,” Jack grinned and pulled back the Velcro of his watch. “Time to order pizza!” At the pout developing on Daniel's face he added. “This stuff has to dry out before we can continue.” 

They ran the short distance to the house, the dog taking the lead. Carter and Daniel were laughing boisterously as they pulled their jackets over their heads against the downpour and dodged the lake-sized puddles in the driveway. 

Being pros at making choices of toppings, decisions were quickly made and as usual it was Teal'c's job to call. For some reason the pizza guy was always fast and the pizza still hot when Teal'c ordered it. Probably the Jaffa charm coming through when he ended the call with, “Do not delay the delivery deliberately.”

They settled on the couch, except for Daniel, who went to kneel on Carter's cozy window seat, looking out at the dark clouds chasing across the sky. Flyboy laid down in front of it and yawned widely before he put his head on his paws and dozed off. 

Jack's eyes scanned the living room absently while Carter poured them red wine and a glass of orange juice for Daniel. They didn't hang out here often. No special reason; it just so happened that they met at Jack's house mostly. He had the best grill, the biggest backyard and the most spacious porch. Well, Jackson's new place had a nice yard, too. 

Thinking of Jackson...

Jack felt his fingers twitch with the need to pull out his phone and call. He didn't like it when his kids didn't answer their phones. It was probably a bad case of mother-henning, but some strange crap had happened to SG-1 over the years. Daniel wanting to jump from his balcony, Carter being kidnapped by Conrad for freaky medical experiments... Deciding Jackson had had enough time rolling in the hay with Fergus, he quietly got up and slipped out of the room. Leaning against the counter in Carter's dark kitchen, he pressed speed dial 2 and waited. 

He didn't have to wait long. “Hi, Jack.” 

“Hey,” Jack said and then stopped, not quite sure how to continue. Jackson sounded cheerful, breezy, relaxed. 

“What's up?” 

“Nothing. Daniel called you this morning and you weren't answering the phone, so I thought I'd check. You okay?” Stupid question. He sounded more than okay. An odd mix of relief and... something else, something dark... rushed through Jack. 

“Yeah, I'm fine.” There was a pause. Someone was talking in the back and Jack heard Jackson covering the phone with his hand as he said, “I'll be right back.” When he spoke to Jack again he sounded curious. “What are you guys doing? Did I miss anything exciting?” 

“Daniel found Charlie's old train set in our basement. We brought it over to Carter's. Set it up in her garage. We just ordered pizza,” Jack said, grateful his voice sounded normal, upbeat even. 

“I never had one as a kid,” Jackson shared. Jack could hear he was smiling. “Is LD having fun with it?”

“Yeah. That probably means you're gonna like it, too. Wanna drop by Carter's place tomorrow? I doubt we'll get this all done tonight.”

“I, ah, I can't... but I'll be there to play with you guys once you’ve done all the hard work.”

Jack snorted. “Yeah, that's what you think. No work, no play. It's a team thing.”

“Are you ordering me to come?” There was a definite ambiguous undertone.

Jack was glad he wasn't drinking, he'd have choked on it. “What?” There was a low snigger. Definitely a snigger. “”What have you been drinking, Jackson?” 

“We had wine. Why? Oh, I'm not drunk.”

“Right.” 

“Jack, I really can't come over tomorrow, sorry.” He actually sounded like he meant it which was at least a bit comforting. “Tell LD I'll check it out as soon as possible though.” 

Jack heard the doorbell ring. “Okay. Listen, pizza's here... .”

“Great. Enjoy. We rented a bunch of DVDs. It's the best you can do in this weather.” Another pause. Then, “Sorry. I guess you didn't want to know that.”

 _No. Not really._ “'s okay. Have fun.” Jack switched off his phone and forced a grin on his face. Teal'c was at the door and Daniel was lurking behind him to help carry the boxes in. 

***

Daniel applied adhesive glue on the poly foam board where they had to layer it with grass. Around the old and new mountains and along the tracks. Their train landscape was beginning to take shape nicely. Sam and Teal'c were applying brown and red paint to the rocks at the tunnel entrances, using tiny brushes. Jack was sprinkling the artificial grass on the areas Daniel was done with. 

“Oh, Jack, it looks all fuzzy and stuffed now,” Daniel complained as he watched the grass being layered thickly around the mountains. 

“That's where you come in. Take a dry brush and start moving it around so it'll go in the cracks and folds around that mountain. We don't want to see any ocher patches or junctions when we're done.” 

“Oh, okay!” He worked quickly before the adhesive might dry. This was easy since he was used to handling brushes and small objects. 

Jack started painting the pond. He created a brown pond bottom, dark in the middle and lighter toward the shores. Then he sprinkled tiny bits of grass on the painted ground. That done he moved on to paint the riverbed in the same fashion.

“Aren't you just painting it blue?” Daniel looked on curiously. Then he remembered Jack getting a can of Envirotex at the railway store. Envirotex was a reactive polymer compound. It was used on tables and other wooden furniture to give them a glossy surface. 

“Tomorrow we can finish the water. This has to dry out completely before we can go on,” Jack said. 

“You're just going to pour Envirotex in there?”

“Yep. Works like a charm.”

They 'paved' the streets next, mixing dry plaster powder into some gray paste. Daniel stirred the mass in a bowl until it morphed into a thick gritty substance which they brushed on the outlined streets. They took turns doing this because standing hunched over the train table and concentrating on not getting any pavement into the grassy grounds was exhausting. And Daniel's arms weren't long enough to reach the village roads in the middle of the table without messing things up. 

“Well,” Jack said as they stood around the craft table and looked at their accomplishments, “we did good, kids. But I think we should leave this to dry and call it a night.”

“When will we meet again?” Teal'c asked.

“If you bring something to eat we could have breakfast together,” Sam suggested, trying to fiddle some paint off her fingertips. 

“Can't we at least put the bridge together tonight?” Daniel looked longingly at the box that contained the bridge construction. It looked a bit like the Salt River Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge in Arizona. He had seen pictures of it somewhere. 

“It's late,” Sam said. “And the rain is getting worse again, I'm afraid.” 

“How can it get even worse?” Daniel looked out the garage window. All he saw was a dense curtain of water rushing down. “That just sucks. And we have to walk the dog.”

Jack shrugged into his jacket and grabbed the leash from Sam's shelf. “You stay in here. I'll just take him around the corner.”

They packed away the paint and tools. Sam had cleared a space on one of her neatly organized shelves for everything. When Jack returned they were ready to go home. Once they had established who would bring what for breakfast, and what time they'd meet, they said their good-byes and headed out into the wet, windy night.

***

“Do you think BD is going to join us tomorrow?” Daniel asked from the backseat of the truck where he was snuggled up with the dog. 

“I called him earlier. He has plans, so I guess not.” Jack carefully steered the truck away from Cheyenne Mountain. They had given T a lift home and Jack almost regretted that now. The wipers were of little use in this mess. And he could hear thunder growling over the noise of the engines. 

“Do you think he's going to hang out with Fergus all his down time now?” There was just a hint of resentfulness and despite the fact that Jack felt a little more than just a hint of it himself, he felt compelled to say, “Give them some slack. With our work schedule they don't have much time together anyway.” Which wasn't a bad thing.

“Oh,” Daniel said softly. “Yeah, I remember that.”

Jack didn't ask what exactly he remembered. How they had hardly been able to keep their hands off each other once they'd gotten together? How they had spent every minute of their first leave in or close to the bedroom? How they had shared goofy, sappy glances whenever they could get away with it? Jack O'Neill wasn't one to show his emotions in public. But oh boy, Daniel Jackson had gotten to him bad. 

“Jack?” The kid version's head and arms suddenly appeared next to him as he leaned over the back of the front seat. “Are you okay?” 

Blinking away something annoying, he kept his eyes on the wet highway. There wasn't much traffic though. No one in his right mind was out driving in this shit. “I'm fine, kiddo.”

“We had fun today, didn't we?”

“Yeah, we did. Daniel...”

“And BD will come and play with us and the train when he's not, you know,...” Daniel shrugged. ”He'll miss us.”

Jack couldn't help it, he had to grin at that. “Yeah. He will. Now sit back and put your seat belt back on.”

“It's just the excitement of the new and unknown now. He'll get bored.” 

They both knew Daniel was just trying to console him without having to actually say; _Maybe he's not as much in love with Fergus as he thinks. Maybe he won't start spending every free minute with him after all. Maybe he'll get tired of him soon..._ A wave of love and gratefulness for the kid's attempt to make this better for him surged through Jack like a warm energy boost. And he actually _did_ feel better. 

“Seat belt, Daniel,” he said and, once the munchkin was seated properly again, asked, “So – you actually like trains then.”

“I guess.” Daniel yawned and wrapped one arm around the dog. 

“There's a railroad museum in Denver, if you're interested.” 

“Is it good? Have you been there?” 

“Nope. But I heard it's huge. You could look it up on the net, see if you want to go.”

Daniel didn't answer for so long that Jack thought he'd fallen asleep. But just as they reached their exit and left the highway, he piped up again, “Jack? Do you think it's weird?”

“What?” 

“Me starting to like new things. Like the rock climbing and the trains?”

“No. Just means you're expanding your horizon. You used to be open to trying new things when you were still big. You used to say it's part of being an anthropologist. I think you lost that openness for a while there, but now it seems you’ve gotten it back.”

“So it's a good thing, right? It doesn't mean I'm... regressing?”

“Do you think you are?” It was always good to know the kid's perspective of things before venturing into discussions like this. And why was it that these talks so often happened at the weirdest of times? 

“No, I... I don't think so. But I was wondering about it just now.”

“You're not regressing. I'd say you're actually taking steps forward.”

“Really?” There was a tinge of doubt, but also relief as though this was what he had hoped to hear.

“Trust me on this, Daniel. It's a good thing.”

“Okay.” Just like that. 

Jack peered at Daniel's sincere young face in the rearview mirror. Svenson had advised him to encourage Daniel's new willingness to explore his child-side, to support his needs to be a kid from time to time. And he found himself enjoying these moments when his kid lost some of his composure and came out to play. The development of new hobbies and the beginning tolerance about interacting with other kids was definitely new. And unusual. But for this version of Daniel it was good and healthy. Jack wondered how many of these changes he would take with him once he got changed back. 

When he looked back at Daniel again, his left shoulder was resting against the dog's head and the two of them were off to dreamland. 

Fin  



End file.
